I fancy Poppies and it isn’t only because of the Collectif retro dress uniforms modelled by the Popettes, as owner Pops Newland calls his fetching, hard-working servers. I have full confidence in how Poppies chooses, batters and deep-fries its fish, both at the original opened across from Spitalfields in 2011 and the brand new duplex branch in Camden Town.

If you only knew what this means to me. No longer do I open my email inbox in fear it will contain yet another request from a foreigner seeking can’t-miss recommendations for fish and chips in Central London. At last I have appealing options, in the heart of areas they are likely to visit to boot.

I can easily defend my slotting in Poppies as fourth on my list of Top 10 Fish and Chips in London. But I do dread getting an email from you asking me to defend its qualification for national honours encompassing regions of the United Kingdom fabled for their fish and chips. I can’t:  Despite chips wanting both in colour and potato flavour and an unwavering commitment to serving fish in less time than it takes to cook Poppies was named a finalist for Independent Fish and Chip Restaurant of the Year at the 2013 National Fish & Chip Awards.

Poppies does not fry its fish to order as a matter of policy. That’s okay, many of the UK’s best chippies don’t either. But at off-peak periods Poppies may let its fillets sit under the heat lamps beyond five minutes. That’s a no-no for a shop that bids to be the best.

Stepping up to the takeaway counter at Poppies in Camden I paused to admire the hat of the Popette serving me and then told her I’d like my cod fried to order. She gestured to the fillets already in the display cabinet and said they’d only just been transferred there from the fryer. By accepting one I wouldn’t have to wait and I wouldn’t be disappointed. She was very nice about it. I thanked her but said I was in no rush.

I’d rather wait for my fish than have my fish wait for me.

When I picked up my fried-to-order takeaway some seven minutes later I noticed that two fillets from before were still doing time under the heat lamps. As I admired the delicately crisp golden batter cocooning my cod I couldn’t help but think of the unlucky souls who’d be served those end-of-batch fillets. I hoped it wouldn’t be the Brazilian couple who’d just walked in. As I pierced the batter and dug into steaming-hot flakes of pearly-white cod glistening in the Camden sunlight, blowing a fresh sea breeze across Regent’s Canal, my rapture was diminished by sympathy for the young lovers from Rio whose first fish ever from a British chippy would not be as hot and moist as mine.

I wanted to call out to them then as I am to you now:

Tell ’em you want your fish fried to order and don’t back down, no matter what the Poppette says. Tell them you’d rather wait your for fish than have your fish wait for you.

 

Poppies Spitalfields, 6-8 Hanbury Street, London E1 6QR (map)

Poppies Camden Town, 30 Hawley Crescent, London NW1 8NP (map)